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A review by nicolemhewitt
Friend or Fiction by Abby Cooper
5.0
This review and many more can be found on my blog: Feed Your Fiction Addiction
This book is an exploration of what it truly means to be a friend. But it also covers many other relevant topics for kids today, like economic challenges, terminal illness, and loss of friendship due to moving. Jade lives in a sort of "stepping stone" town---people don't stick around for long there. So, she's struggled to make meaningful friendships and has resorted to an imaginary friend named Zoe who she writes about daily. When Zoe comes to life, it seems perfect, but Jade struggles when Zoe fails to live up to her expectations of what a best friend should be. She also struggles to deal with her father's cancer and his inability to be completely present in her life the way she'd like him to be. I'm not going to lie: Jade is sometimes a difficult character to like, even when you do sympathize with her. She often acts selfishly (with both Zoe and a boy named Clue, who she holds a grudge against), and her perspective is skewed by her past experiences of loss. Still, even though I didn't always love Jade's attitudes or actions, I was always rooting for her to grow and learn from her mistakes. By the end of the book, Jade realizes that she hasn't been looking at friendship the right way.
The magical elements of this book are intriguing and mysterious. And I love the way that Jade's love of writing was woven into the story (and into the magic in an unexpected way). Overall, this was a lovely story!
***Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley for review purposes. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***
This book is an exploration of what it truly means to be a friend. But it also covers many other relevant topics for kids today, like economic challenges, terminal illness, and loss of friendship due to moving. Jade lives in a sort of "stepping stone" town---people don't stick around for long there. So, she's struggled to make meaningful friendships and has resorted to an imaginary friend named Zoe who she writes about daily. When Zoe comes to life, it seems perfect, but Jade struggles when Zoe fails to live up to her expectations of what a best friend should be. She also struggles to deal with her father's cancer and his inability to be completely present in her life the way she'd like him to be. I'm not going to lie: Jade is sometimes a difficult character to like, even when you do sympathize with her. She often acts selfishly (with both Zoe and a boy named Clue, who she holds a grudge against), and her perspective is skewed by her past experiences of loss. Still, even though I didn't always love Jade's attitudes or actions, I was always rooting for her to grow and learn from her mistakes. By the end of the book, Jade realizes that she hasn't been looking at friendship the right way.
The magical elements of this book are intriguing and mysterious. And I love the way that Jade's love of writing was woven into the story (and into the magic in an unexpected way). Overall, this was a lovely story!
***Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley for review purposes. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***